(The limited series premiered April 4 on Netflix, and all episodes are now streaming)

The Performance: Criminals are fun to play. They’re inherently bad, and being bad is fun. That’s why some actors revel in playing villains because they get to take these bad characters — bad as in lacking moral fortitude, not in substance — and make them somehow sympathetic. The best villains, after all, believe that they’re right. Take the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thanos. He was a genocidal maniac, but in his heart, he only wanted peace. Mass murder and the deaths of quadrillions of living beings were just a necessary side effect.

Thomas Ripley, however, has no such lofty ambitions, he’s just a low-level con man out for himself, preferably with as little effort as possible. The hero, or rather anti-hero, of a series of famous novels by Patricia Highsmith, Ripley has been adapted before, most memorably by Anthony Minghella in the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley. In that version, Matt Damon played the role to moderate acclaim. The issue was that he was overshadowed by the man playing the ill-fated Dickie Greenleaf, Jude Law, who scored an Oscar nomination for his efforts.

There’s no chance of that happening this time around.

Photo credit: Netflix

In the latest screen version, Netflix has given us an eight-episode limited series from writer-director Steven Zaillian, who won an Oscar for writing Schindler’s List. The title role is played by Irish thespian Andrew Scott, who just about explodes off the screen in a remarkable turn that is alternately seductive and menacing, and so powerful that, no matter who else is in the frame, you can’t take your eyes off him.

The mistake a lot of actors make when playing a sociopath is to tip their hand too early. Giving clues as to their intentions and inherent evil. Scott avoids this by keeping a very cool veneer, even as he’s plotting how he’s going to get where and what he needs. There’s no wink at the audience, no self-conscious smirk to clue us into what he’s got going on. Instead, he gives us a man who appears to be the essence of calm. He is serene. He is a glassy pond at sunrise, without the slightest ripple, until he is ready.

That moment comes at the end of the first episode, when he finally shows us some semblance of his true self, in a chilling moment that sets up the rest of the story. No spoilers here, but suffice it to say, it’s much more menacing than seductive, although there is plenty of the latter in store.

Scott is a brilliant actor who has played his share of villains, but what makes his Ripley so much more interesting than, say, Damon’s, is how relatable he makes the criminal feel. There’s a quiet desperation to him at the story’s beginnings, but not an overwhelming one. Scott acts so much with his eyes that we both empathize with him and wonder what’s going on behind them. They may be the windows to the soul, but Scott wields them instead as mirrors, and that paradoxically serves to draw us in further.

One doesn’t have to love villains to love particular villains. We can pick and choose, based on who the villain is or, even better, how that villain is portrayed. James Bond fans have their favorite versions of Blofeld, for instance, and Batman fans have their favorite Joker. Take some time to sit down with Andrew Scott. He’ll likely become your favorite Ripley.

Photo credit: Netflix

The Career: Andrew Scott had already been a working actor for more than a decade when he showed up in the BBC’s monumental 2010 version of Sherlock, which made Benedict Cumberbatch an international star. He appeared in both Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, for instance, and played Colonel William Smith in four episodes of HBO’s John Adams opposite Paul Giamatti. He was in lots of British TV shows and some short films, and he was someone who had something special.

It was his turn as the villainous Moriarty in those Sherlock episodes that took him to the next level. Suddenly, this was a guy who could play a sociopath with charm and wit, adding to the considerable deviousness and menace that would show up again in several nasty roles, of course, most recently Netflix’s Ripley. In the immediate aftermath of Sherlock came Daniel Craig’s fourth outing as James Bond, Spectre, in which Scott was the traitorous C, leader of the British domestic secret service and ally of Christoph Waltz’s Blofeld.

But of course, Scott is far more than that, which he proved in the 2019 second season of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s seminal Amazon series Fleabag, in which he showed up as a Catholic priest who falls in love with Waller-Bridge’s title character. Scott’s priest was sexy and charming and romantic and made it clear that there was more to this actor than just villains. That was hammered home yet again in 2023, with his leading turn in All of Us Strangers, as a screenwriter who gets a mysterious new way to heal from losing his parents 30 years before. Scott is heartbreaking in the movie, offering a hopeful sadness that is somehow never off-putting. On the contrary, it only serves to make the audience feel for him even more.

The point is, you can’t pin down Andrew Scott. He’s as versatile as they come, and now we get eight episodes of seeing that versatility in action. It’s not just Mister Ripley who’s talented.

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The post Acting Up: Andrew Scott Steals the Show in Netflix’s ‘Ripley’ first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Acting Up: Andrew Scott Steals the Show in Netflix’s ‘Ripley’ appeared first on Casting Networks.

Fast forward to 2024, where she’s been crushing it with Fincannon & Associates for over a decade, while watching her home city blossom into a thriving production hub. The casting director took time out to discuss casting Netflix’s hit show Outer Banks top to bottom, her time in New York and of course, all things Atlanta.

Congratulations on the well-deserved Oscar category being added for casting. What did that feel like for you and your peers to finally get recognition from the Academy, and what was going through your mind when you got the news?

It’s been something that we’ve been seeking for quite some time. I think it was just difficult for us to understand why television was recognized and features weren’t. I feel like we’re moving ahead, moving forward, where casting is very much on the map. I think it’s something that now people talk about more than they used to. [With] all the work that we do with features, I’m glad that people are recognizing the collaboration and our hard work, and it feels like we’re really moving into a great space with casting.

You started in stage management at the University of Florida. How did that pull you into the casting world?

At that time in my life, I don’t think I knew that casting was a trajectory I could follow, but I always loved actors. I loved being in the room with the director and the audition process and hearing his thoughts, and every time a new actor would come in and [I’d be] seeing their read and how it could fit, it just lit me up. I was talking to a director about that, and he was like, “Well, maybe you should consider casting.” He connected me with some people up in New York, and that’s how the ball started rolling.

How has the stage management experience helped you as a casting director in general?

I think it’s definitely helped with blocking out my time accordingly. I think it’s helped with juggling the personalities of everyone involved in the production. With stage management, you very much do the same thing. You are pulling all of the pieces together for the production, and it also has this family environment and you get that with each production that you work on. It’s just balancing all of the pieces of the puzzle of a production that you see in stage management as well as in casting, because there’s so many different facets. Not only schedules, but also content. It’s just really logistics, logistics, logistics.

I don’t think that a lot of people realize that with casting, that so much of it is “Can we actually get the actor there on that day to do what they need to do?” Of course, auditioning is very much the more fun part of finding that match—that marriage, so to speak—with what the creators seek and what you present to them.

Photo courtesy of Kimberly Wistedt, CSA.

What was it like working with Tara Rubin and Bernie Telsey? How do you think those experiences prepared you for working at Fincannon & Associates and shaped the way that you work now?

I think what was so amazing about being in New York and working for these names that had been in the business for so long, and for something as historic and rooted as theater and musicals and Broadway, nothing makes you feel richer in the history of your industry and in casting, and it’s really what lit the fire. They’re just so highly respected and I’m truly, so grateful for that experience.

The Fincannons have also been rooted in the industry since the early 1980s. It’s interesting how I found myself with a company that had the same incredible reputation and history in the business coming from Tara Rubin and Bernie Telsey’s office. It prepared me for the hustle. It prepared me for building my own reputation within these offices that have incredible reputations on their own. I think my time in New York really showed me that this path is what lights me up and is just a perfect marriage of what I think that I am meant to do in terms of my skill set.

What was it like casting Outer Banks?

Outer Banks is so wonderful for our office, because we’re usually relegated to regional casting due to the location-specific part of the show and our relationship with the Pate Brothers. They wanted it to be so truly of the Southeast and so truly of Carolina kids. That show is such a milestone for us as a regional office to do it from top to bottom.

What was really amazing about casting Outer Banks is finding, I guess you could say, no-name talent at the time and building them into this empire of global phenomenon status. I say kids, but they’re not quite kids—finding young adults really from this region and bringing this story to life because everyone believed that they were kids from the Outer Banks. I think the authenticity of all of that and our market has always succeeded in that age range [with] those kids.

How much more intensive is the process when you’re going top to bottom versus a handful of specific roles?

In terms of the difference, I would say obviously workload. You have so many more characters to pay attention to [and] it’s all coming from you. Everything from the series regulars down to the one-line day player.

It’s also a very schedule-specific show in that we deal with a lot of locations and for some reason, we also shoot during hurricane season. There’s a lot of shifting around [and] it’s action-packed, so there’s a lot of changes. It really is such a whirlwind of a show.

It’s lots of hard work, but I wouldn’t change it for the world because I just feel like it’s really put our market on the map. It validated our office as casting anywhere is casting everywhere. Similarly to the actors that we cast. Just because we’re not in New York or LA, we still do the damn thing. I think it’s brought a lot of pride to our office.

Kim Wistedt, CSA, Lisa Mae Fincannon and the cast of Outer Banks. Photo courtesy of Kimberly Wistedt, CSA.

What’s your experience been like, watching Atlanta blossom into the production powerhouse that it’s become, and how does that feel as an Atlanta native?

It’s so funny. I always thought that in order to pursue this path, I would have to settle in New York and LA. While those places are very sparkly and fun and certainly full of opportunity and history in the business, I just knew that neither one of those places could be somewhere that I could be long-term.

I have so much pride that I can be in a location where I have the same access to what drives me in terms of the projects and the stories, the studios and everyone involved. I can live in a place where I’m near family and friends, where it’s not this constant struggle to survive. I’m really thriving here. I do think that success is a multifaceted word. I think that of course, you can move to LA or New York and do everything that it takes for the business, but I think other parts of your life could suffer in that way.

I have so much pride for Atlanta, and it feels very kismet, I think, that it’s worked out this way for me and I’m grateful. I’d say over the past 10, 11 years here in the market, the way that it’s changed and grown, Atlanta is no longer a secondary location. It’s very much a primary location, and the market has become a lot more saturated.

In casting, what’s been so refreshing and so wonderful is just the caliber of the roles that we are looking for. We are very often working in tandem with the New York and LA offices that we work on with our series.

The trust that producers have in us and in our market, and in the talent that we bring has grown tremendously. We’ve gone from the one-line bellhop, on location, local talent to series regulars and major recurring guest stars. We still have a lot of work to do to sew up the gap there in treating Southeastern actors with just as much experience as an actor coming out of LA, but I think we’re really making a lot of headway. It’s been really cool to see that transition and for us to be just legitimized on all sides.

Atlanta is also a big food city. What’s your go-to local dish?

I wish I had some very classic Southern stance on this. We do have really, really amazing brunch places. There’s this place in Buckhead called Buttermilk Kitchen, and it is just like, everything that you could quintessentially want when you’re in a Southern town and you would want for breakfast, they have. It’s just impeccable. The wait is always outrageous.

I’d say Atlanta brunch is a total vibe, but also, cuisine that I really like is Mediterranean and Greek. I don’t know what it is about falafel, but I just love it. We have quite a handful of really amazing Mediterranean, Persian, Greek restaurants. There’s a place called Cafe Agora in Buckhead that I really love. Rumi’s Kitchen is amazing. There’s a new [Persian] restaurant called Yalda that has a couple of locations, [and] it’s really delicious.

Atlanta is incredibly diverse, [which] I don’t think a lot of people realize. I think I read a statistic one time that it was in the top five most culturally diverse cities in the U.S. It’s a really bustling city, but they say it’s the city in the forest.

I think that’s why Atlanta is so great for this industry and also for industry professionals, because you get the balance of city life, hustle and bustle, skyscrapers, restaurants, amazing hotels and experiences, concerts, the whole shebang. You also get a calming forest vibe. You get hikes. The Blue Ridge Mountains are just an hour away. You don’t really feel all-consumed by city life. Lots of beautiful, sprawling neighborhoods and homes and all four seasons. Who can’t love that?

What’s some audition advice you could share?

For me, there’s many things, and each casting person always has their do’s and don’ts. One that I go back to is reading as if you have the role. I think it strips away this level of desperation of like, “Oh my gosh, I just want this role so bad.” Believe it or not, we can sense that energy on the other side. I think it also creates this level of play where you don’t feel like you have to marry yourself to some expectation like, “Is this what they need? Is this what they want to see?”

It allows you this room for discovery, for truly listening. I always like to say, “Pretend as if you have it and you’re on-set and you’re doing the thing.” I always like to say to find your environment and your business in the scene. I think that pretending that you have it and you’re on-set helps inform that as well, because you can see where you are [in that] place in time. Also, I love little tidbits, just imagining your head space in the moment before this scene happens.

Overall, just do it as if you have it, and it’s really incredible to see how much more fun it is for us to watch, and just how much more magic happens from the moment you press play.

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The post Fincannon & Associates’ Kimberly Wistedt, CSA Talks Casting Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks’ and Atlanta’s Amazing Brunches first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Fincannon & Associates’ Kimberly Wistedt, CSA Talks Casting Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks’ and Atlanta’s Amazing Brunches appeared first on Casting Networks.

The Performance: There is something particularly difficult and fascinating about playing a character who has no idea what’s going on. Not the stupid kind, the clueless moron who meanders through life without an intelligent thought in their head, but rather the brilliant person caught in a situation they don’t understand. That’s the kind of person who must unearth the truth and do so in a way that will be satisfying not just to the character, but to the audience as well.

This is, in essence, Jo, the role that Swedish actress Noomi Rapace inhabits in Constellation. An astronaut who is the best in the world at what she does, who is used to contending with the unknown as a space traveler. But when that unknown suddenly becomes something inside her own head, it’s mind-melting for both her and viewers alike.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

Rapace’s performance is especially impressive when you consider that, for the bulk of Constellation’s first season, Rapace has to play Jo in several different ways. She sees things that she’s not sure are real, remembers details differently from how the rest of her family remembers them and when she tries to relay the events of the tragedy that sets the story in motion, she is contradicted not only by the administrators on the ground but by her fellow astronauts who were there with her.

The confusion is constant, and it’s easy for an actor to lose control of that, to make the audience feel sorry for them, or, conversely, to stop caring. That kind of thing can get frustrating, after all, which can lead very quickly to indifference. But when it’s done right, and the audience is brought along for the ride, the frustration is in concert with the character, and instead of indifference, what arises is empathy.

Rapace engenders the audience’s empathy with work that is astonishing in its complexity. There is never a time when we’re not with her, not also wondering what’s going on and what is missing from her life. Why does she remember her family’s Volvo as red instead of blue? Or why does she wonder aloud if her husband Magnus (James D’Arcy) remodeled the kitchen since she went up to space several months earlier?

Spoiler alert: He didn’t. Also, the car has always been blue.

When the answer finally arrives and both Jo and the audience are simultaneously clued into the truth, there is a sense of satisfaction that we went on this ride with her, wondering with her what answers would finally be revealed. Good writing goes a long way in accomplishing that, but without the central performance holding it all together, that writing can be utterly wasted. A bad performance can render it meaningless, whereas a great one can elevate it even higher. Rapace does that with every expression, every beat of silence and every motion. Rapace’s Jo is not just an astronaut on a mission to find the truth, she is also a proxy for viewers who want answers as badly as she does. Pulling off both of those things is to carry a heavy load, which Rapace shoulders with relative ease.

You’ll end up wanting to watch the show a second time, not only to get a better sense of what’s going on and view the clues it offers on the path to illumination but also just to enjoy the work that Noomi Rapace gives us in every single frame.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

The Career: It was 2009, when Noomi Rapace was nearly 30 years old, that she became a sensation here in North America. And she did it in a trio of Swedish films. True, she was playing a character made famous literary trilogy by author Steig Larson, in what came to be known as The Millennium Saga, starting with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Rapace played hacker Lisbeth Slander. She spoke not one word of English in the three films, and yet, by the end of that first film, she was an international star.

Of course, her ability and charm were well known to Swedish audiences, as Rapace — formerly Noomi Norén, before she married fellow actor Ola Rapace in 2001, though she kept his name after their 2011 divorce — had been on the big screen there since she was a kid. Born in Hudiksvall, Sweden, she earned her first role in an Icelandic film at the age of seven, became a mainstay of Swedish theater in her teens and twenties and won the Danish version of an Oscar for her work as a teen mother in the 2007 film Daisy Diamond.

But obviously, it was her work as Lisbeth Salander, the eponymous “girl” of the movie’s title, that changed everything. That role earned her a BAFTA nomination, another nomination for a European Film Award, and won her the Guldbagge, otherwise known as the Swedish Oscar.

From there, the offers came rolling in. First, there was Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, then Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel, Prometheus and Brian De Palma’s Passion. There have been more than a dozen other roles, leading up to her star turn in Constellation. The key word being “star,” because that’s what Noomi Rapace has become. Right in front of our eyes.

Constallation premiered February 21 on Apple TV+, and all first season episodes are now streaming.

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The post Acting Up: Noomi Rapace’s Interstellar Performance on Apple TV+’s ‘Constellation’ first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Acting Up: Noomi Rapace’s Interstellar Performance on Apple TV+’s ‘Constellation’ appeared first on Casting Networks.

Elliot Warren, though, is different. A writer and director himself, his career as a multi-hyphenate has taken off in recent years. The play he wrote, Flesh and Bone, won awards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, made it to London and won him a special Olivier Award, the British version of the Tonys. That said, acting is his primary metier, and a small part in a huge movie proved transformative (see below). Currently, he’s playing Lieutenant James Douglass in Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air, but he’s also got a whole lot of other things going on, both in front of and behind the camera.

He talked to us from his home in London.

How did you get into acting in the first place?

I always loved drama at school, but I wanted to be a boxer. I was a boxing champion in my county in England and was going full force with that. I’m from a working-class background, I never really knew how to get into the acting world, so I thought boxing was what I was going to do. But my drama teachers were pushing and pushing for me to keep going with it. I remember watching Bronson, with Tom Hardy when I was about 15 or so and just fell in love with it. I thought, “Oh, my God, this is what I want to do.” It took me a little while, I did about a million different jobs and all sorts of other things. Then at 20, I decided that I’d finally go to drama school. I got into one and then it was just no looking back.

How did you start writing? A lot of actors try, but you’re succeeding with it.

I was the first person in my class to get an agent. So I thought, “Brilliant. I’m gonna be James Bond. That’s it.” But it doesn’t work like that. (Laughs) I just started to go out on my own course, make my own work and get myself out there.

I did two things. In 2015, I made a short called Stick Up, about two criminals. It was a bit of a comedy and that went viral. It got 12 million views and back then, that was a big deal. Then I wrote a play called Flesh and Bone. We did it in a 30-seater pub theater and one night there were two people in the audience. A drunk guy at the front and my mom at the back with a Flesh and Bone t-shirt on.

It was quite, quite pathetic. But then we went on a crazy journey with it. We were invited to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, we took it to Australia where we won Best Fringe Show of the year, then back to London, went to a Soho theatre and it won a bloody Olivier Award.

You’re certainly doing fine on the acting side. You have a brief but very memorable role as the gang leader in The Batman, who gets his ass kicked by the Caped Crusader.

I feel like I got very lucky with that part. I was just happy to be in The Batman, but it ended up being such an iconic moment in the film. Even in the trailer. That was even better for me than the job itself.

I was going to ask if being in the trailer, when he beats you up and says, “I’m vengeance,” what that did for you.

It did loads. Because I had that line as well, “What the hell are you supposed to be?” People lost their minds. Yeah, it was brilliant, and I think it got me in a lot more rooms. It got people talking. I think it’s always all about that. What can I get to make myself marketable for people? With Masters of the Air, I’m quite a cheeky chappie, and I get to introduce myself with a little wink. I think those little moments are massive for when you’re not a lead character because you’re just trying to put yourself on a platform where people will remember you. You’ve just got to keep finding those moments.

You did my job for me, segueing into Masters. What kind of research were you able to do on James Douglass?

There wasn’t a lot of information, but I was lucky enough that the family reached out so I was able to talk to them and get some information about what he was like and whether we were going down the right road. Because as I said, he’s a bit of a cheeky chap. Very confident. They said, “Yeah, no, that was Granddad.” All that was on the internet were his accolades.

In talking to other actors from the show, it’s clear everyone got into honoring the real men they were playing, but what I’m curious about is if the hierarchy translated to real life.

To a certain extent, yes, but not in an egotistical way. I think at the very beginning of boot camp, we all were looking to Callum [Turner] and Austin [Butler], because they were our leads. They were the most famous pilots of the 100th Bomb Squad.

As we settled down, we found that brotherhood between the crews. David [Shields] plays my pilot. I was the Bombardier of his plane. Same with Anthony Boyle, who was the navigator on our plane. So we three became very close, just like the real guys did.

Maybe their souls were speaking through you.

For sure. I’m a firm believer in things like that. I think that had to be at play.

With all you’ve got going on, is your future in front of the camera or behind it? Or both?

I kind of straddle both. I just finished another acting job in December, and I’ve jumped straight on to a writing job for the BBC at the minute. I’ve also written a feature film called Bruiser, which is a boxing film, but it’s about suicidal young men in this country. I’ve got talks next week with some producers that are excited about it. I’d be directing that. I’d like to be in it as well.

I’ve also just finished another writing project, a 30-minute mad Apocalypse comedy/drama thing called Stress Heads. It takes place in a world with 30-second attention spans, and the world is so mad that people’s heads are just popping and turning into zombie nutters.

It sounds like you’ve got so much going on that that could be you if you’re not careful.

You’re right. I don’t ever really switch off. (Laughs) I’ve got probably about 10 projects on the go, I’m auditioning for a TV show in two days as well, and it is all a bit mental. I’ve also noticed that I’m talking without commas and full stops. I need to rein it in. (Laughs)

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The post On the Verge: Elliot Warren Talks Breaking into Writing and Acting, Apple TV+’s ‘Masters of the Air’ first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post On the Verge: Elliot Warren Talks Breaking into Writing and Acting, Apple TV+’s ‘Masters of the Air’ appeared first on Casting Networks.

Since the fall of 2022, she has appeared as Frances Neagley, the best friend and close colleague of title hero Jack Reacher. Based on the series of books by Lee Child, the show is the biggest hit Amazon has ever had, and it has made a star of Sten, who is regularly stopped by fans who quote the show’s lines to her. That kind of life-changing hit is rare, but Sten takes it in stride. She spoke to us from her home in Los Angeles.

How did you get into acting?

I was a very curious child, and I think I had a need to express myself. I did one theater thing when I was five years old in school and thought that was fun, but at that time I was pursuing dance. I was born and raised in Denmark, and I came to New York to be a dancer.

I thought I was going to do musical theater first, then realized that’s a very limited genre. I realized, “Okay, this isn’t what I want to do for the rest of my life,” and finally decided to commit to acting and try that out for real.

Walking into my first acting class and just having such a big “aha” moment. This is what I want to do. I would sit in an acting class for five hours straight and just be enthralled. That was how I then decided that I was going to be an actor, which is, of course, a terrible decision. (Laughs) But I still love it.

Two things that I think a lot of actors have in common are an innate curiosity and having that “aha” moment where something spoke to you. Do you remember specifically what that moment was?

I was living in Vegas, modeling and dancing, and was very miserable. I [already] had a show in Atlantic City and wanted to be in LA, but at the time it was expensive. I was like, “Oh, I can be in Vegas. I have connections here already because I’m a performer.” So, I lived in Vegas and was miserable because I was living in Vegas.

I was Googling acting classes in LA, and the first thing that came up was this notice to audit an acting class at the Aaron Speiser Studio. I decided, “Yeah, I’m gonna drive to LA and audit an acting class.” Then I did, and that was when I had that moment, my first day in class. I was like, “This makes sense to me. I know this language, my curiosity is here mirrored back to me.” There’s a deep exploration of humanity, of discovery, of human nature in general, that I was just so captivated by and interested in.

How long did it take until you moved to LA permanently?

I would drive out every single week, back and forth. I’d be in acting class Monday through Thursday, then drive back to Vegas, and we’re doing shows Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a year. I finally decided, “Okay, I’ve had enough of Vegas and I will be in LA full time.”

I found different studios to study and then I got a manager when I felt that I was ready for it. Then I realized I didn’t know how to audition at all, so I needed to go do an audition technique [class]. I did that for a while, very much trying different things on the menu in terms of what LA has to offer. I think it’s good to try different modalities and approaches to make up your special sauce of how you’re going to approach the work.

Photo courtesy of Maria Sten.

It’s interesting, it sounds to me like you didn’t try to get work until you felt like you had some mastery of what you were doing.

You know, in this business, often you only get one shot. I think for me it was very much about learning the craft first, learning what is acting and how am I able to translate it in my body. It took a year, maybe two. I still auditioned for short films and student films, low-stakes situations, finding a place where I could work and explore my craft and get footage. But yes, to answer your question, I very much wanted to feel that I had a good grasp on the craft before I put myself out there.

I think most actors just dive in and try to get work, even if they don’t have any clue what they’re doing.

I’m a very intense person. I’m very hyper-focused. Whatever I’m doing, I’m doing it 100%. For me, this was a time where I wanted to focus on learning this craft. I think that there is something to learning what you’re doing before you start doing it. That’s not to say you need to do it for five years. It’s not to say you can’t put yourself out there in low-risk situations, like go with your acting class friends and shoot something. I’m all for going out there and doing things with your friends. But I do think you can set yourself up for success, set yourself up for good feedback and not have the casting director calling my manager being like, What the hell was she doing? She’s not ready! You know?

You’ve had major roles in shows like Channel Zero and Swamp Thing, but Reacher is the biggest thing you’ve ever done.

It’s great to be on a show that people are watching. It’s satisfying to do the work and have people see it. Channel Zero was my first job, but five people saw it. The people that saw it loved it, but five people saw it. I think the same with Swamp Thing. So yeah, it’s lovely to be on a show that is watched by everybody everywhere, all over the world.

Did you have any idea about the size and scope of the fanbase of the Reacher series?

I didn’t. I knew there had been two movies starring Tom Cruise, and that they were based on books. I did not know it was a billion-dollar book franchise.

There’s so much pressure in regards to playing a character like Neagley because, after Reacher, she is the most beloved in the book franchise. I felt that there was pressure to get it right. I went back and read all five books that Neagley is in and drew a lot of my inspiration from the books, in terms of how to create her as a character. We put our spin on her, which I think is lovely and makes her interesting and endearing in a way that is not just cool, tough, badass. I feel like we’ve seen that so many times now.

Neagly is not in Killing Floor, which was the basis for the first season of the show, nor is she in Persuader, which is the basis for season three. And yet, you’re in both. That must be enormously gratifying to be doing something so well, they’re finding reasons to bring you back.

That’s a wonderful way of looking at it. I think it’s because Neagley is a cool character. It’s great to be able to just explore her more and be able to dive deeper into who she is. I’m very grateful that the show has gotten the response that it has. My character is seemingly very loved around the world.

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The post ‘Reacher’ Star Maria Sten Talks LA, Vegas and Putting Her Spin on Frances Neagley first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post ‘Reacher’ Star Maria Sten Talks LA, Vegas and Putting Her Spin on Frances Neagley appeared first on Casting Networks.

Hayes shared the casting journey that led to her appearing in 12 episodes of the new season of a show centered in the world of exotic dancing and how sticking with her commitment to not do full-nudity almost derailed the booking. You can catch the full story in our on-camera interview.

This video interview has been edited and condensed.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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• On the Verge: Matt Gavan on Playing Charles “Crankshaft” Cruikshank in Apple TV+’s ‘Masters of the Air’
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The post Heart Hayes on Booking Tyler Perry’s ‘All the Queen’s Men’ Despite No Nudity Clause first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Heart Hayes on Booking Tyler Perry’s ‘All the Queen’s Men’ Despite No Nudity Clause appeared first on Casting Networks.

While you may or may not have seen the Shakespearean actor on stage, to see him play that American hero, Charles “Crankshaft” Cruikshank of the 100th Bomb Group, all you need to do is tune in to Apple TV+’s limited series Masters of the Air. Episodes are now streaming. Gavan spoke to us from his home in England.

How did you get started acting?

In the town where I grew up, I had a really good active youth theatre and a bunch of us went on to drama school in one way or another. That was my crowd. At uni, funnily enough, I was there with [Masters co-star] David Shields, although we didn’t really know each other then. He’s only about two years younger than me, but in the context of a three-year course, it might as well have been on a different planet.

I went to drama school after that. RADA [Royal Academy of Dramatic Art] in London. I did that for three years. So I was an undergrad doing plays in one way or another for six years.

So once you get out of RADA, I’m assuming that that led to a fair amount of theater work.

Yeah, I had some crazy good luck. When I first left, I went straight into King Lear, with Glenda Jackson. I know she came over to the States and did it a few years later, but that was our first attempt. Then I went back to the Old Vic for more theater stuff a year and a half later for an adaptation of Fannie & Alexander. I’ve done some touring of theater to China, Wales, Scotland, so yeah, certainly in the first few years, that was my main stage.

I imagine doing that kind of theater allows you to learn a lot about the world while you’re doing it.

I think so. I mean, I’m very, very cautious about sounding too sentimental about the wonderful job that we do, but I think that, for me, it’s a bit like being a generalist. You have to be a semi-expert in everything. For Masters of the Air, you have to become a functional expert in the P-17 and be in the US Army or whatever.

If you’re doing a massive Shakespeare play on a big stage, you have to become an expert on that play, not just on your part, but on the nature of the poetry of the plot, all that kind of stuff. So that, for me, is the great pleasure of it, the corners it takes you into.

There’s something to that. Having that kind of wealth of knowledge.

Yes, it makes you a real bore at the bar. (Laughs)

Or very good at trivia.

Yeah, well, listen, I love a pub quiz. So I’m there for that for sure. (Laughs)

You mentioned Masters of the Air, which is why we’re here. For a lot of the guys on the show, this is their first big gig. But you were in another Apple TV+ show, Foundation.

In any normal sense, Foundation is a huge show. Of course, it was a huge show. But the difference in scale was still palpable. I mean, for me, Foundation was the biggest thing that I’d done, and I literally went from filming Foundation in the Canary Islands, straight into bootcamp. That kind of sheer immersive thing made you really feel like you were standing in the tradition of Band of Brothers and learning all about these real people we were playing. So even coming straight from Foundation it still felt like a step up.

How much research we’re able to do on Charles Cruikshank, and what kind of sense did you get of him as a person?

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to speak to his family. There aren’t that many of them left, and they were difficult to contact by the 100’s group. Luckily, for me, there’s an amazing interview with him and Hambone Hamilton and John Brady that was recorded in the late 80s. It’s half an hour, 45 minutes of them just chatting, and obviously, while they’re old men, you do see them relax [and] tuck it away. It was such an amazing resource for his accent, primarily, but also for his vibe.

“Crankshaft” Cruikshank was a jovial, fun, loving, relaxed guy. But not knowing more is in a way quite freeing. You get to retro-engineer this personality, so you go back from those few facts, as long as you’re from Massachusetts, as long as you sound like the person.

What, if anything, do you take from a role like this?

I think this is gonna sound counterintuitive, but the thing that I took away from playing Cruickshank and from being in the show, is the sort of practical nature of all of this stuff. These guys were doing this incredibly practical job, and so much of what we were doing felt real.

There’s a scene where I had to burn the crease of my uniform with a matte straw and get the fleas out. We were doing it in this place that looks pretty gross and horrible, and I was dealing with a real match and they were real trousers. They put this tiny popping noise in the edit, just to get the sound right, but other than that it was totally real. And that’s it. You’re in the moment doing that thing. It’s not a psychological experience that you have to give yourself to trick yourself into performing some kind of magic, you’re doing it. It’s real.

I think the simplicity of that, it’s a lesson you learn over and over and over again. The moment is the thing. The arc is important, of course. Do your research. Look after yourself in and out. Be interested in what you’re doing. But stay present in the thing. All you have to do is just stick in that moment, the thing you’re doing, and the art will take care of itself.

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The post On the Verge: Matt Gavan on Playing Charles “Crankshaft” Cruikshank in Apple TV+’s ‘Masters of the Air’ first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post On the Verge: Matt Gavan on Playing Charles “Crankshaft” Cruikshank in Apple TV+’s ‘Masters of the Air’ appeared first on Casting Networks.

He stars as Lieutenant Glenn Graham in the series, which focuses on the famed 100th Bomb Group that flew missions over Europe during World War II. He spoke with us from his home in London.

How did you get into acting in the first place?

I got into acting because I was 11 and didn’t have any friends. When I first went into musical theater, I didn’t like it. I did not like the subject. I didn’t like how I’d already been in boys school for four years, but I liked the people and eventually jumped into it and loved it. Working with them made me fall in love with it.

I think that’s how a lot of people start, in musical theater.

But I really trained in musical theater. I studied musical theater. I’ve worked in musicals. But it didn’t take me very long to figure out I prefer the telly stuff, and that’s where my ambitions are. I did a very, very traditional route into West End musical theater, then decided early on that I wasn’t going to last. Also, I didn’t like it all that much anymore.

What was it about musical theater that you stopped liking? And why did you find there was no future for you in it?

I didn’t think that there was enough work out there that I was suited to have a long or healthy career. I also think that it doesn’t allow for creativity in the same way.

How so?

The reality of the job is that a musical theater performer is not a creative role. At all. It’s very uniform, very athletic and often very military. If you’re gonna go into a show, like Les Mis or Wicked, you do what the guy did 25 years ago because that works and that’s what the producer wants to do. I grew up thinking, “God, maybe I could do Fiyero [from Wicked] one day, My Fiyero would be lovely.” But it’s not true. And it’s not going to be that different from anyone else’s.

So what you’re saying is that doing straight acting — non-musical acting — is more creative because you have more of a say in the character and how it’s played and performed?

Exactly. Every single time you’re going into a creative position, you’re expected to be the creator, and that is the fundamental skill. Whereas in the musical theater performance, the skill that’s going to keep you going for the longest time is to say, “Yeah, I can do that.” But you’re always sort of being shown and told what to do.

[Wicked’s] Elphaba is a great example. When you see all these compilations of different “defying gravity” riffs that go up and down, you go, “Okay, well, that’s where the creativity is.” But that’s not where my creativity lies. My creativity lies in creating characters creating stories and seeing how emotions play with each other. Creating things that have chemistry that are organic to me, rather than organic to an established thing that I’m trying to apply myself to. But people will still look at you as a musical theater person and sometimes that makes it hard to get seen.

I get how you can be stigmatized by having a reputation as a musical theater guy and maybe not being allowed to present something more grounded.

I turned down two jobs with good West End contracts because they wouldn’t lead to the job that I wanted to go to next. You do have to be picky with the avenues that you go down. You’ve got to be smart about it. As an actor, it’s really hard to turn down work, but if it’s not the right opportunity, it’s not an opportunity at all.

How do you change their minds? How do you get into rooms that aren’t looking to see you?

Be impolite about it. You just go, “Hey, this is what I’m here to do. I think, with musical theater performers, we’re taught to be very grateful actors, very gratuitous. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.” Kiss your feet for this opportunity. There’s nothing more dull when you’re in it, to be honest, but it works for musical theater. That’s the way they like it.

You just have to get in there with your shoulders and put your foot down, be decisive. Don’t listen to people who want to tell you no, if you have a different idea of what you’re good for. They might be right. They might be wrong. But fundamentally, you’re never going to be satisfied unless you’re trying to do the thing that you want to do, rather than the thing you can do.

This role in Masters of the Air must be a big step in the right direction.

Yeah. Totally.

You’re playing a real person, a genuine hero. I’m curious what kind of research you were able to do on him.

There wasn’t lots on Glenn. There’s some information out there, but not loads. If you dig your way through the archives, you can get what you need. He was a pretty serious pilot.

This is a big first gig. Where do you go from here?

That’s the question. I don’t know. It’s been a really interesting climate since we shot this. I’d like to do a lead in something small, something manageable that sort of matches the ambition of where I need to go next. In terms of doing something like Masters of the Air again, they don’t come around that often.

This is a big exception, obviously, but I find telly generally is quite nine to five. If we would compare it to anything, it’s like an office job, but everybody has fun. Whereas movies, you’ve got a group of pirates, they’re jumping out on location with one massive collective vision. A lot of people are sacrificing an awful lot that they can be involved in this great thing. That’s what I want to do. Travel the world and shoot great films all over. I want to effectively run away and join the circus. (Laughs)

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The post On the Verge: ‘Masters of the Air’s Darragh Cowley first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post On the Verge: ‘Masters of the Air’s Darragh Cowley appeared first on Casting Networks.

Anders has been on TV pretty consistently for two decades, mostly playing smart, friendly, fun women, which fits because that’s how she comes off in person. Currently, she stars in the MAX show Bookie, in which she plays Sandra, the wife of the title character, played by Sebastian Maniscalco. She spoke to us from her home in Los Angeles.

What got you into acting?

My brother Sean —he’s quite a success now— he’s always been kind of a very good bossy older brother. Like, “You should do this, you should do that,” kind of a thing.

When I was in high school, he said, “You should do something interesting.” Instead of running track and playing volleyball, he said, “Do something cool like drama club.” We had a new teacher named Jan Williams. I did what my brother said, then Jan said to me, “You’re good enough to go to college for acting.” So I did. At college, I met one of my best friends, Jessica, who told me to come with her to Rutgers because she was going to go to graduate school and I should come with her.

After a year in New York where nothing much happened, I got into Rutgers, shockingly, because most people auditioned for a bunch of schools, but I was just doing what Jessica said. I did three years at Rutgers and at the end we did a showcase. I did well, I got an agent and I got casting directors interested. I started to work pretty much right away.

Basically, you’re a success because you’re a pushover.

(Laughs) There’s more! When I decided to move to New York, we were packed up [and] ready to go. My boyfriend at the time was going to come with me. He was in a really terrible car accident, so I remember telling my mom I better wait for him to recover, then we’ll go. But my mom said “No, you keep coming up with reasons why you’re not going to go and you’ll never go.” She shoved me out there.

I got to New York and it was too much for me. I remember calling her saying, “I can’t do it. The city is going to eat me up.” She said, “Please just stay two more months. Eight more weeks. Just stay two more months.” And I did it. I did it only because she begged me to and within two more months, I was okay.

I was joking, but that’s pretty amazing. Even though you were pushed, you need to have the drive to actually make it because it’s really unstable and I think generally, people have no idea how hard it is.

I definitely have a thing where when I decide something, it’s just going to happen. I get obsessive about it. You know, it’s interesting, I’m really lucky that my current partner, Jason, is a screenwriter. He’s always talking about exactly that. Like, “Hey, you did something that 99.99% of the people don’t do.”

There’s very few of us who do shit like this and there’s a reason for it, because it is unstable. One of my early gigs was a Bud Light commercial and it shot in Canada. I remember a Canadian actress was in the commercial with me and she was saying that she feels like the only way she’s really going to make this work is if she moves to New York, but she can’t do that. Because what is she supposed to do? Take her savings —which I remember she said was $10,000— and just spend it all to get to New York? And I remember thinking, “Yeah, you should.” She thought she was making a case for herself as to why she shouldn’t do that and I thought, “Well, just come back with me on the plane. Let’s go.”

I’m guessing she didn’t go.

(Shaking her head) I just realized, “Oh, this is just a very different way of thinking.” There was a guy in college. He was a senior and I was a freshman. He was known to be a really good actor that got all the lead roles. I remember he was graduating from the program and he was going to law school. I said to him, “Why are you going to law school?” He said, “Because I don’t want to be 50 years old eating macaroni and cheese.” And I remember thinking, “Why not?” (Laughs)

I think you either have what it takes to go for it or you don’t.

You have to constantly give yourself credit for that. But, I mean, I struggle with it. When things are not going well, I look around at my friends with stable lives and I think, “Oh, what was I thinking?” Then things go well and I go, “No, this is the right thing to do.” (Laughs)

You cross over a lot between drama and comedy, but I imagine most people think of you for your comedic work. Do you find that?

Probably. I think comedy comes easily to me. Like, when I get a script to audition for it, sometimes I can see something and think, “Oh, no one’s gonna know to do this.” That’s fun for me.

I think for most people it’s the opposite. What about you makes it so easy for you?

I was just actually thinking about it this morning because I went into this Pilates class and there were two women in there and I just started doing this bit. I’m low to the ground and making voices and telling them this story and I finish and go into the bathroom and think to myself, “Some people must think I’m nuts, but that’s okay.”

I’m a lot. (Laughs) But I can’t seem to stop! I’m not for everybody. (Laughs) There’s a line from Modern Family I love. Eric Stonestreet has dragged Jesse Tyler Ferguson through Costco and Eric says, “I’m like Costco. I’m big, I’m loud and just try not to love me.” That’s how I feel about myself. I’m big, I’m loud, and there are people that don’t love me, but I think they’re wrong. (Laughs)

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The post ‘Bookie’ Star Andrea Anders On How Taking Risks Led to Her Acting Success first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post ‘Bookie’ Star Andrea Anders On How Taking Risks Led to Her Acting Success appeared first on Casting Networks.

The actors from the show, including Jason Sudeikis, Brett Goldstein and Hannah Waddingham are heading into the SAG Awards on February 24 with individual acting nominations while the show itself is nominated in the Ensemble Comedy Series – a testament to Park’s eye for talent.

Park spoke to Casting Networks about casting Ted Lasso through the seasons, working on Amazon Prime Video’s series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and how actors can prepare for auditions when little information is given about the project or the characters.

How did you first come on to the project?

Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso co-creator, executive producer and star) reached out to Allison Jones, a fabulous casting director based in Los Angeles and a friend of mine. He said, ‘If I was casting a show out of London, who would I use?’ She suggested me. I’m forever grateful he listened to her.

What was the first order of business when he hired you?

I read the pilot and we identified who the regulars were. The most important person (to be cast) was the character of Rebecca Welton. They got me on early to start looking for her. We went through lists and ideas. There was studio preference to cast a name actress who would be known to American audiences, so we spent a lot of time going through those names with the creatives at Warner Brothers Television.

What happened?

Some of those names passed. We sent the script, and they passed. After that, we were able to start meeting people for the role. Jason was in Los Angeles the whole time, but he came over to London for one day and we met a few actors for the part; but nobody really hit it.

So, Jason goes back to LA. What do you do?

Then Hannah Waddingham walked into the room and that was it. This often happens in casting, where no one quite hits it, but you have to do a big troll to get there. We saw so many people and we talked about so many names. It wasn’t until Hannah came in that it was like, “ah, okay.” We flew her out to L.A. to meet Jason and they had a chemistry session. Finding Rebecca was a long process, but we got there in the end. Once that was done, we dug into the other regulars, like the footballers and the people at the club.

What was the biggest challenge in casting the show?

It’s always challenging when you’re only given a pilot script and you are only working off conversations. I was having phone conversations with Jason and he’d talk to me about the characters, but it wasn’t entirely clear. It never is at the start. That’s why you’ve got to throw yourself into it and bring in as many different types as possible at the beginning so that the creatives can go, “Oh, yeah.”

For example, for the role of Higgins, we saw lots of different types. Nick Mohamed originally came in for Higgins, as did Jeremy Swift. But it was unanimous and immediate when Jeremy Swift did the tape that it was him. But you don’t know until that person comes in.

You won your first Emmy for casting Season One of Ted Lasso. When you returned for Season Two, was there a different kind of confidence that came in because of that?

I think we all felt a confidence when Season One was loved as much as it was. Certainly, when I was watching it as a punter, I was like, okay, now I totally get the tone, you know? (laughs). We were fortunate to land Sarah Niles as Dr. Sharon Fieldstone for Season Two. She was our big new signing. But for Season Three, there were many more peripheral roles to sink our teeth into.

How do you tackle that?

You do it role by role. Jack, Keeley’s new girlfriend in Season Three, is played by Jodi Balfour, and again, we saw a variety of people. I always do this, especially with Jason. I present him with a variety of people. Then one by one, we figure out who’s who.

With Jodi – she’s a really good actor – we knew she would have to play a duplicitous side. We didn’t want her to be quite openly duplicitous because we didn’t want to give any of that stuff away. So I’m very happy with that piece of casting.

You also cast The Lord of the Rings streaming series on Amazon, which couldn’t be more different from Ted Lasso. How was that experience?

Variety is the spice of life, so casting The Lord of the Rings was very different. At the same time, you’re still in a room with actors and presenting your favorites to a group of creatives. You’ve already had numerous conversations with those creatives about who might be right for the part before you get into that room. That informs things a lot.

With LOTR, one of the big differences is that it’s Middle Earth, so we’re talking about casting different species. Each species has its characteristics that we like to adhere to and we’ve talked at length about what we hope to see in the actors within those species prior to the auditions. Of course, there’s only one species in Ted Lasso! (laughs) They just need to be humans – humans who make us laugh and cry.

As a casting director, do you prefer seeing actors in person or via self tape?

I prefer seeing people in the room, to be honest. We should not be moving solely to self tapes and Zooms. COVID isn’t such a worry anymore, but there are lots of good things about self tapes. Some actors live away from London and can’t make it to the audition room, or they have childcare issues, or there might be a tube (subway) strike. The fact that we can use self tapes as an option — which has worked well over the last three years — is good.

Do you sympathize with actors who may not have information other than the sides when auditioning?

It sucks. I feel for them, but casting directors are often constrained by whatever the studio wants us to present to actors. I’d say do your homework as much as you can. If you are only sent a paragraph and you don’t know the show, find at least who the showrunners are, what they might have done before and what the tone of those pieces might have been. If you’re coming in for Lord of the Rings and it’s a part you don’t know much about, read a bit of Tolkien. Just a chapter to get your head in the zone. I know it’s hard and I do sympathize. But if you are presented with what you’re presented and it’s not enough, do some homework.

You began your career working for famed casting director Nina Gold, first as a casting assistant and then as a casting associate on films like The Theory of Everything, The Martian and the Star Wars films The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. When you look back at your work in casting, what project would you say put you on the map where you feel you’ve arrived in your casting career?

I don’t know if I’ve arrived or if I am on the map (laughs), but I feel that Ted Lasso has changed my life. These jobs don’t come around very often and I am incredibly grateful to Jason and everybody on the show to have taken me along for the ride for three very happy, rewarding seasons.

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The post Theo Park Talks the Casting Process for ‘Ted Lasso,’ Amazon’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Theo Park Talks the Casting Process for ‘Ted Lasso,’ Amazon’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ appeared first on Casting Networks.